Air-cooled condenser for steam-driven vehicles



R. WAGNER April 28, 1931.

AIR COOLED CONDENSER FOR STEAM. DRIVEN VEHICLES Filed March 24, 19

: 4 I \L El) Patented Apr. 28, 1931 PATENT! OFFICE BUDOLI WAGNER, OFHAMBURG, GERMANY .AIB-COOLED CONDENSER FOR STEAM-DRIVEN VEHICLESApplication filed March 24, 1980. Serial No. 438,609.

Various cooler arrangements are known with motor driven air craft, inwhich the cooler is built within a canal, which diverges in anozzle-like manner from its most restrict- 5, ed point at the'air intakeup to the point where the cooler is situated, and from there to thepoint where the air leaves the canal, it converges in a nozzle likemanner. The purpose of such an arrangement. is to assure a minimumamount of resistance to the cooling air in its passage through thecooler. Such arrangements however have the disadvantage, that thesuction at the exhaust or discharge end of the canal, caused by the airwhich rushes past the vehicle with great rapidity, is used only to aminimum degreii for causing flow of the air through the coo er.

In accordance with the arrangement of.

the present invention, which is designed primarily, for use with steamdriven air craft, and comprises building in of the air cooled condenserfor ,the steam by direct heat exchange tothe air or of an air cooledcooler for the recooling of the cooling water of a water condenser forindirect heat exchange with the air, the above mentioned disadvantagesare overcome. The condenser or cooler is, in accordance with thisinvention, also built into a canal which diverges from the air intake upto the point where the condenser'or cooler is located, but which, fromthis point on, up to the exhaust end of the canal does not morecontract. This exhaust end of greatest cross section merges directlyinto the outermost contour of the air craft so that the suction whicharises through the rapidity of motion of-the craft can operate over alarge cross sectional area. The outermost side of the condenser, for thepurpose of this invention, can be placed in the vicinity of theoutermost lines of the aircraft configuration, or can even coincide withthe same,

whereby the heat exchange to the air is by radiation still furtheraugmented. Furthermore, the intake and exhaust of the canalrespectively, can advantageously be arranged at the points at which thegreatest difference of pressure prevails, as, for example, the intake atthe under side, and the exhaust at the rear upper side, of thesupporting wing of an air lane.

In t e accompanying drawing are shown, merely by way of example, twoembodiments of the invention.

Fig. 1 is a side view of a gondola of a steam driven airship embodyingthe inven-, tion.

Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the gondola.

Fig. 3 is a detail fragmentary view show- 6 ing an arrangement for thecanal exhaust parts in the form of Figs. 1 and 2.

Fig. 4 is a sectional view on line 44 of Fig. 5, of a second example ofthe invention, an

Fig. 5 is a top plan view of Fig. .4,

The form shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3 refers to a' gondola of a steamdriven airship, while that according to Figs. 4 and 5 refers to a steamdriven giant airplane. In both forms there is provided an air cooledcondenser for a direct heat exchange from the exhaust steam to thecooling air, since this manner of condensation is the simplest in thiscase. However, the examples also obviously apply, with but slightchanges, for indirect condensation or other types of condensers, asdesigned.

In Figs. 1, 2 and 3, 1 designates the wall of the gondola, 2 a watertube boiler, 3 a steam- 8 superheater, 4 a pro-heater for the combustionair, 5 the exhaust for the waste gases, 6 the combustion chamber of theboiler and 7 a blower, which receives the fresh air through the canal 8leading from the condenser canal. The pipe 9 leads the steam from thesuperheater 3 to a highpressure turbine 10. 11 designates a low pressureturbine, 12 a common reduction gearing for both turbines and 13 thepropeller. At 14 are designated the exhaust passages from the lowpressure turbine 11 to two air cooled surface condens- These condensers,in accordance with the inventionare built into a canal 16 having exhaustports in the sides of the gondola, and the canal diverges from its point17, of smallest cross section which is the air intake and is positionedat the foremost end ofthe gondola, up to its largest section 18, at theconstructiomsimilar to side exhaust ports. At the last mentioned pointthe condensers 15 are built into the canal as shown in Fig. 2. a

The condensers can be constructed in any desired manner, as for example,of rows of pipes in which the steam enters, and between which pipes theair passes in the direction of the arrows 19. An auxiliary propeller 20is placed in the air intake opening for starting or for increasing thecooling effect during flight and is driven by an engine 21.

In the arrangement shown, the air which streams past the outer surfaceof the aircraft operates in a sucking manner overa large cross sectionof the outward flowing cooling air entering from the front at 17, andthereby produces a very good cooling effect of the condenser, with aminimum additional resistance to the movement of the aircraft.

In order to still further increase this suction effect, one ormoresuitable formed blades 22, 23 can be arranged, as shown in Fig. 3, inthe exhaust ports 18 of the condenser canal 16. These blades 22, producea more turbulent free intermingling of the cooling air coming from theinside, with the air rushing past outside of the craft, and thereby anincreased suction action.

In the embodiment according to Figs. 4 and 5, concerning an installationusing also steam turbines as power engine, the same parts are designatedwith the same numerals but primed, as in the foregoing example. Thedesignation of the various parts is only partly indicated, as anunderstanding of the same readily follows from the form of Figs. 1 to 3discussed above.

In Figs. 4 and 5, 24 indicates the wings of a giant airplane in whichthe entire power lant is built into the wings. Water tube oilers 2', 2are, as regards their general the boiler 2 of Fig. 1 and 2 and to thesethe combustion air passes through a conduit 25 leading from a forwardpoint of the wings. A high pressure turbine'lO and two parallel workinglow pressure turbines 11', 11'- are shown, andthese three turbinesoperate through a common reduction earing 12' for driving the propeller13'. ondense'r canals are indicated at 16 in which the intake ports 17of least cross I section of the canals, are formed as slits located onthe under side of the as is well known, there exists an excess pressure.The exhaust ports 18' section of the canals,are located at the rearupper side of the wings, where a depression exists. At the point 18, ofthe canals 16', are disposed the condenser-s15" (in the illustratedembodiment two condensers have been shown) the ofiter limits of whichapproximately coincide with the contour of the wings. Each condensercanin a manner similar to that of Figs. 1 and 2, be built of rows ofpipes, lying transversely of the wings, as

wings, where,

of greatest cross the cooling air passes in thermore, the arrangementaffords favorable conditions for carrying the water of condensation fromthe high sltuated rear end of the condensers to a condenser pum 26.

Blades 22, similar to those 0 Fig. 3, shown in Fig. 4 only of thissecond embodlment, can

be used for the purpose described above, for increasing the suction atthe exhaust ports of the canals 16.

In order to obtain a certain amount of regulation of the cooling action,an adjustable blade or flap 27 (shown only in Fig. 4) can be provided inthe intake port 17' of the canal 16, which blade, through a to and fromotion in the direction of the arrows 28, can decrease or increase thesection of the intake ort. p The invention, of course, is obviously notrestricted to the two illustrated embodiments, or forms of the car body,to the described power plant, or to the condensers or the form of thecondenser canals and so forth, but other arrangements can alsobe usedwithout departin from the limits of the invention. Preferab y, however,the sitions of the intake and exhaust ports oi the canals are soselected that, the pressure conditions resulting through the motion ofthe air-craft produce an air movement through the condensers in thedirection from the smallest to the largest sectional .area of thecanals, and through the condensers positioned and built in at suchlargest sectional areas.

Furthermore, the invention is obviously not'limited onl to airships orairplanes, but can be utilize I for other steam driven vehicles with aircooled condensers. Likewise other forms of steam engines can be used inplace of the steam turbines of the illustrated embodiments.

Having now described my invention I cla1m:

1.. An arrangement of air cooled condensers or coolers for steam drivenvehicles, comprising, a vehicle, a condenser or cooler, a canal in thevehicle having increasing cr'os section from its smallest section at itsintake port to its largest section at its exhaust port which coincideswith the outer contour of the vehicle, the condenser or cooler beingbuilt into the canal at itslargest section. 2. An arrangement accordingto claim 1,the canal being positioned so that the motion of flight ofthe vehicle produces a movement of air through the canal from itssmallest section towards its largest section.

the canal being in a gondola or car body of an airship, the Smallestsection of the canal being to the front of the gondola or car body andthe largest section of the canal being at the side of the gondola or carbody.

4. An arrangement according to claim 1, the smallest section ofthe'canal being positioned at the superpressure side of the craft, andits largest section being at the subpressure side of the craft.

5'. An arrangement according to clai-m l, the outer contour of thecondenser or cooler coincides approximately with the outside contour ofthevehicle.

6. An arrangement according to claim 1, and uide vanes at the exhaustport for augmenting the suction at such point.

7. An arrangement according to claim 1, and means positioned at theintake port of the canal for regulating the cooling effect of thecondenser or cooler,

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

' RUDQLF WAGNER.

